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21-542: The islands in the ecoregion are part of Wallacea , a group of indonesian islands which lie between the Australian and Asian continents but were never part of either continent. The islands consist of two concentric island arcs. The Inner Banda Arc is made up of young, active volcanic islands, including the Banda Islands , Serua Island , Nila Island , Teun Island , Damar Island , and Romang Island . The Outer Banda Arc

42-513: A mix of ancestral and derived traits suggest murid rodents made it to Australia earlier, maybe in the Miocene, over a forested archipelago, i.e. Wallacea, and evolved in Australia in isolation. Australia's rodents make up much of the continent's placental mammal fauna and include various species from stick-nest rats to hopping mice . Other mammals invaded from the east. Two species of cuscus ,

63-530: A predominant genus of trees in Australia, are found in Wallacea: Eucalyptus deglupta on Sulawesi, and E. urophylla and E. alba in East Nusa Tenggara. For land snails Wallacea and Wallace's Line do not form a barrier for dispersal. Kai coucal Centropus phasianinus spilopterus The Kai coucal ( Centropus spilopterus ) is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae . It

84-652: Is September (100 mm). The islands receive more rainfall than Timor , Wetar , and the other islands of Nusa Tenggara to the west. The principal plant communities are evergreen rain forest, semi-evergreen rain forest, moist deciduous forest, and dry deciduous forest. Common trees in the Tanimbar and Kai forests include Dillenia papuana , Pometia pinnata , Manilkara kanosiensis , Inocarpus fagifer , Heritiera littoralis , Diospyros spp., Garcinia celebica , and Myristica lancifolia . The ecoregion has 22 species of mammals. The dusky pademelon ( Thylogale bruinii )

105-512: Is a kangaroo native to the Kai Islands, as well as the Aru Islands and southern New Guinea . The Kei myotis ( Myotis stalkeri ) is an endemic bat. The Indonesian tomb bat ( Taphozous achates ) is native to the ecoregion and neighboring Timor. The islands are home to several species of mosaic-tailed rats ( Melomys ). In the Tanimbar islands, Melomys cooperae is endemic to Yamdena, and

126-839: Is home to over 10,000 plant species, of which approximately 1,500 (15%) are endemic. Endemism is higher among terrestrial vertebrate species; out of 1,142 species described there, almost half (529) were endemic. 45% of the region retains some sort of forest cover, though only 52,017 km (15%) is in a pristine state. Of Wallacea's total 347,000 km -area, about 20,000 km are protected. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests : Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests : Australia may be isolated by sea, but technically through Wallacea, it can be zoologically extended. Australian Early-Middle Pliocene rodent fossils have been found in Chinchilla Sands and Bluffs Down in Queensland, but

147-536: Is home to over 2,000 invertebrate species (with over 1,000 known species of arthropod , not including nearly 900 lepidopterans ), 100 species of reptiles and amphibians , and 288 bird species. Maluku has around 70 reptile and amphibian, 250 avian, and over 550 invertebrate species. Seram Island is particularly noted for its butterflies and birds, including the Moluccan king parrot . Smaller mammals, including some carnivorans (such as civets ), marsupials (such as

168-718: Is made up of oceanic sediments, principally coralline limestone, together with some older metamorphic rocks which accreted as the Australian plate subducts under the Banda Sea plate . The Outer Banda Arc includes the Kai Islands , Tanimbar Islands , Babar Islands , and Leti Islands . Yamdena in the Tanimbar Islands is the largest island in the ecoregion. Yamdena is mostly low, with a maximum elevation of 120 meters. Yamdena and several other Outer Arc islands have areas of karst where

189-618: Is represented by a zoogeographical boundary known as Lydekker's Line , while the Wallace Line (separating Wallacea from Sunda) defines its western border. The Weber Line is the midpoint, at which Asian and Australian fauna and flora are approximately equally represented. It follows the deepest straits traversing the Indonesian Archipelago . The Wallace Line is named after the Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace , who recorded

210-509: The Aru Islands share many marsupial mammals, land birds, and freshwater fish that are not found in Wallacea. Although the distant ancestors of Wallacea's flora and fauna may have been from Asia or Australia-New Guinea, Wallacea is home to many endemic species. There is extensive autochthonous speciation and proportionately large numbers of endemics; the area is an important contributor to

231-635: The Riama mosaic-tailed rat ( Melomys howi ) is endemic to the island of Selaru in the Tanimbar Islands. Bannister's rat ( Melomys bannisteri ) is endemic to the Kai Islands, and closely related to M. lutillus of New Guinea. The other rodents of the Kai islands are Hydromys chrysogaster and Uromys caudimaculatus , which are also found in New Guinea and Australia. The ecoregion is home to 225 bird species, including 21 endemic species and subspecies. It corresponds to

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252-677: The Sulawesi bear cuscus and the Sulawesi dwarf cuscus , are the westernmost representatives of the Australasian marsupials. The tectonic uplift of Wallacea during the collision between Australia and Asia c. 23 million years ago allowed the global dispersal of passerine birds from Australia across the Indonesian islands. Bustards and megapodes must have somehow colonized Australia. Cockatiels similar to those from Australia inhabit Komodo Island in Wallacea. A few species of Eucalyptus ,

273-678: The Sunda Shelf (the Malay Peninsula , Sumatra , Borneo , Java , and Bali ) to the west, and the Sahul Shelf including Australia and New Guinea to the south and east. The total land area of Wallacea is 347,000 km (134,000 sq mi). Wallacea is defined as the series of islands stretching between the two continental shelves of Sunda and Sahul , but excluding the Philippines . Its eastern border (separating Wallacea from Sahul)

294-693: The cuscus ), primates and rodents are common throughout the region. A large portion of the waters surrounding Wallacea are part of the Coral Triangle , considered to be the richest coral reef and marine ecosystems on earth, with the highest number of species, adding to the total biodiversity of the region. Wallacea was originally almost completely forested, mostly tropical moist broadleaf forests , with some areas of tropical dry broadleaf forest . The higher mountains are home to montane and subalpine forests, and mangroves are common in coastal areas. According to Conservation International , Wallacea

315-1481: The Banda Sea Islands endemic bird area. Endemic birds include the Tanimbar megapode ( Megapodius tenimberensis , Megapodiidae ), Tanimbar cockatoo ( Cacatua goffiniana , Cacatuidae ), blue-streaked lory ( Eos reticulata , Psittaculidae ), green-cheeked bronze cuckoo ( Chrysococcyx minutillus rufomerus , Cuculidae ), Kai coucal ( Centropus spilopterus , Cuculidae), Banda myzomela ( Myzomela boiei , Meliphagidae ), golden-bellied flyrobin , ( Microeca hemixantha , Petroicidae ), Wallacean whistler ( Pachycephala arctitorquis , Pachycephalidae ), cinnamon-tailed fantail ( Rhipidura fuscorufa , Rhipiduridae ), long-tailed fantail ( Rhipidura opistherythra , Rhipiduridae), black-bibbed monarch ( Symposiachrus mundus , Monarchidae ), Kai monarch ( Symposiachrus leucurus , Monarchidae), Kai cuckoo-shrike ( Edolisoma dispar , Campephagidae ), slaty-backed thrush ( Geokichla schistacea , Turdidae ), fawn-breasted thrush ( Zoothera machiki , Turdidae), Tanimbar starling ( Aplonis crassa , Sturnidae ), Damar flycatcher ( Ficedula henrici , Muscicapidae ), Great Kai white-eye ( Zosterops grayi , Zosteropidae ), Little Kai white-eye ( Zosterops uropygialis , Zosteropidae), and Tanimbar bush-warbler ( Horornis carolinae , Cettiidae ). A 2017 assessment found that 987 km (381 sq mi), 14% of

336-521: The differences between mammal and bird fauna between the islands on either side of the line. The islands of Sundaland to the west of the line, including Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo, share a mammal fauna similar to that of East Asia, which includes tigers, rhinoceros, and apes; whereas the mammal fauna of Lombok and areas extending eastwards are mostly populated by marsupials and birds similar to those in Australasia. Sulawesi shows signs of both. During

357-584: The ecoregion, is in protected areas. Protected areas include Kai Besar Nature Reserve. Wallacea Wallacea / w ɒ ˈ l eɪ s i ə / is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves . Wallacea includes Sulawesi , the largest island in the group, as well as Lombok , Sumbawa , Flores , Sumba , Timor , Halmahera , Buru , Seram , and many smaller islands. The islands of Wallacea lie between

378-453: The ice ages, sea levels were lower, exposing the Sunda shelf that links the islands of Sundaland to one another and to Asia and allowing Asian land animals to inhabit these islands. The islands of Wallacea have few land mammals, land birds, or freshwater fish of continental origin, which find it difficult to cross open ocean . Many species of birds, reptiles, and insects were better able to cross

399-413: The island's limestone was uplifted and then eroded. The ecoregion has a tropical monsoon climate, with two seasons. The west monsoon season runs from mid-December to June, and brings humidity and higher rainfall. The east monsoon season brings drier weather. On Yamdena, the largest island in the Tanimbar Islands and in the ecoregion, the highest rainfall month is February (380 mm), and the driest month

420-584: The overall mega- biodiversity of the Indonesian Archipelago. Fauna includes the lowland and mountain anoa , or dwarf buffalo ( Bubalus sp.), and the babirusa, or "deer-pig" ( Babyrousa sp.), both found on Sulawesi, among other islands. Maluku shares a number of similar species with Sulawesi, albeit with fewer total, given the differences in size between the two islands—Sulawesi has at least 4,000 recorded terrestrial plant and animal species, while Maluku has just over 1,000, by comparison. Sulawesi

441-538: The straits, and many such species of Australian and Asian origin are found there. Wallacea's plants are predominantly of Asian origin, and botanists include Sundaland, Wallacea, and New Guinea as the floristic province of Malesia . Similarly, Australia and New Guinea to the east are linked by a shallow continental shelf, and were linked by a land bridge during the ice ages, forming a single continent that scientists variously call Australia-New Guinea , Meganesia, Papualand, or Sahul. Consequently, Australia, New Guinea, and

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